Tuesday, May 21, 2013

When a Thousand Faces Aren't Enough: The Hero in Plural Society

I'm going WAAAAY back with this blog. This was the first paper I ever wrote as part of my masters in Religious Studies. I've recently been rethinking about the topic after a couple articles on the Huffington Post's religion section. Ryan Thomas Neace, a friend's brother has started to write for them and his articles prove thought provoking on the subject of what it means to be a "Christian man." (I hear he also had an excellent science teacher in High School)

So here it is -- the wall of text that is my first term paper. WARNING: I haven't re-read it since then. So I'm kind of scared. :)

When a Thousand
Faces Aren't Enough:

The Hero in Plural
Society

In 1949,
Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces broke ground with the
analysis of the monomyth. Campbell's analysis of scores of hero myths from many
different cultures showed a latent plot structure and recurring themes that
illuminated the reading of countless other stories. The second half of the 20th
Century saw many new stories for print, screen, and stage that showed the
influence of this seminal work.While
ahead of his time, Campbell was still rooted in the early 20th
century. It must be pointed out that along with more subtle biases, Campbell is
at times blatant in his disregard for tribal culture. On the first page of his
text he mentions listening “with aloof amusement to the dreamlike mumbo jumbo
of some red-eyed witch doctor of the Congo.” (Campbell 3) Labeling
this as a markedly unacceptable statement for a scholar is not nit-picking but
necessary. The greater weakness, however, of The Hero with a Thousand Faces
is the hero itself. A more appropriate title would be The Hero with a Thousand
Names, as the face hardly ever changes—it is the face of a man from the
dominant societal group. Campbell's analyses are of exceptional importance in
American society for white, affluent male's. His inspiration, however, rings a
bit less true for women and minorities.

In 1986,
Carol Pearson, deeply influenced and inspired by Campbell, published The
Hero Within: Six Archetypes We Live By. This was an attempt to follow down
Campbell's path while including myths and analyses more relevant to the facets
of society left out of Campbell's original work. Not all of the heroes of
Pearson's work are warrior princes who use brute force to attain their goal.
The female heroes addressed in The Hero Within are not all prepubescent
girls kissing frogs or stepping through mirrors. Pearson shows that there are
other options of hero role models for female and minority communities. While
focusing a great deal on self-improvement topics (and doing it well), Pearson's
work is a step towards a more universal hero but falls short of being a “Hero
with a Thousand Faces for everyone.” Something is still missing.

Before
continuing, it is most important to note that used here, “myth” or “mythology”
refers to a story or group of stories that hold meaning for a group of people.
Their realistic truth is unimportant. What is important is their underlying
message. Any story that speaks to someone on a deeper than normal level is
mythic. Mythology, therefore, can include sacred texts, apocryphal stories,
fairy tales, and historical or public figures. One should not be offended if
they come across a story from their own religion labeled as mythology.

Campbell was
greatly influenced by the psychology of Carl Jung and the ideas of collective
unconscious and archetypes figure prominently into his work. It is no surprise,
therefore, that Pearson continues the Jungian analysis of heroic archetypes.
While the descriptions below offer quick glimpses into the six archetypes that
Pearson focuses on, it should be noted that each archetype is dynamic and
covers many different characteristics. And, as Pearson points out, when an
archetype is attempting to be active in an individual that is repressing it,
the archetype will act out in a shadow form—a negative incarnation that is an
attempt to get the individual's attention. The Warrior described below can be a
great liberator of the oppressed when allowed to come forward, or a
narcissistic despot in its shadow mode.

An
understanding of Campbell's analysis of the structure of the monomyth is
important before examining Pearson's six hero archetypes. The majority of
Pearson's archetypical analysis is based firmly on this structure. Coming after
Arnold van Gennep's Rites of Passage, Campbell makes good use of the
three stage hero's journey, labeling them Departure, Initiation, and Return.
The Departure section includes subsections such as “The Call to Adventure,”
“Refusal of the Call,” and “The Crossing of the First Threshold.” The nature of
this initial call and refusal of it becomes important for Pearson in
determining which heroic archetype is dominant for a specific person or myth.
During the Initiation, the hero is often trained by a stranger who shows up at
the right place and the right time. The hero is able to overcome the trials on
the road to the ultimate quest with the help of strangers and friends met along
the way. This section of the monomyth is highly reminiscent of the liminal
period of rites of passage as detailed by van Gennep and Victor Turner. The
Initiation period of the monomyth is where the hero is sucked out of everyday
life and imbued with great creative energy. And as Turner shows, the liminal
period can gain a sense of autonomy. The hero often would prefer to remain by
the slain dragon's side—basking in the glow of communitas as it were
with his colleagues and their supernatural boon. For this reason, “The Refusal
of the Return” is the first sub-section of The Return of the hero in the
monomyth. Liminality speaks even to the hero, yet the greatest quest of the
hero is returning to everyday life with the boon and bestowing it upon the community.

Considering
this monomythic structure, certain well known myths come to mind easily. From
religious leaders such as Jesus, the Buddha, and Mohamed to social
revolutionaries like Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. Female models, however,
are a bit harder to imagine in this structure. Those who do come to mind often
end up being women who played the role of men—such as Joan of Arc. It is true
that Campbell's analysis is a beautiful description of the many fascinating
myths described in his work. They are inspirational and rejuvenating. Just as
Turner's communitas would have it. But perhaps Campbell tried too hard for
uniformity by leaving out other myths that may have been too much out of the
mold. It would be hard to fit a martyr-nun peg into a slaying-the-dragon hole
after all.

Pearson
attempts to rectify this by analyzing myths within the framework of six heroic,
and unisex, archetypes. These are: The Innocent, The Orphan, The Wanderer, The
Warrior, The Altruist, and The Magician. In order to understand her analysis,
it is necessary to describe each archetype in brief. The Innocent appears at
two points in Pearson's work. The first is as a child. Parents address all the
needs of the Innocent. The child is never wanting and is bathed in happiness. This
Edenic existence sounds too good to be true, and it is. As the child grows and
is able to comprehend more of the world, they learn that parents establish
boundaries and at times must enforce them and that God does not always appear
as the protecting shepherd. Thus the Innocent evolves into the Orphan. The
Orphan is characterized by the feeling of being forsaken. Whether it is the
idea of parental abandonment or God's denial to help, the Orphan is on their
own. They tread water in life as they look to others for help. At this point,
he Wanderer decides that the situation is either too hopeless to be salvaged or
that the grass is most likely greener elsewhere and lives as a transient. For
Pearson, this is a powerful archetype for women who feel trapped in the gender
roles they inherit. A stay at home mother who decides to embrace her inner
Wanderer need not pack up her bags and abandon her family, but may find other
ways to search for meaning in life while not giving a monopoly of her time to
other people. As the Wanderer's journey leads them to the ultimate heroic
quest, the Warrior hero emerges. This is the hero of Campbell's work. The
Warrior uses force to slay the dragon and complete the quest. Even though the
Warrior returns to society with the boon, they act mainly for themselves. The
Altruist also appears at times as one of the thousand faces. The Altruist is
the giver, the paschal lamb, and the nature goddess renewing the crops. Jesus
and the Buddha are found in Campbell's work and fit very well into the Altruist
mold. Many myths with female heroes also contain Altruists. After the Altruist,
Pearson returns to the Innocent because, with boon in hand, the hero can return
to an Edenic life. All may not be perfect, but the mature Innocent realizes it
is how it is supposed to be. Lastly Pearson addresses the Magician. Similar to
the Altruist, the Magician gives to others, but is able to change the world
just by will. The Magician has mastered all other archetypes to the point of
accomplishing things automatically.

When
comparing Pearson's archetypes to Campbell's work, the structure of the
monomyth becomes the focus. For Pearson, the archetype does not always remain
the same through the entire arc of the monomyth. Certain stages of the
adventure call for specific archetypes to dominate for certain events. For
instance, before Campbell's call to adventure, most myths begin with a prelude.
Describing the setting and characters, this prelude gives a good idea of which
archetype Pearson would choose for the hero at the beginning of the adventure.
In many myths, the setting is one of abundance and benevolence. Society is
functioning properly and the fields are fertile. This would hint at an Innocent
hero. The setting is idyllic. There is no fall from grace. The focus of the
call, the dragon as it were, comes from without. It is a new character in the
myth that calls for action. If, on the other hand, the fields are ravaged by
drought and the king is a despot causing great suffering and injustice in
society, the hero often comes from the Orphan archetype. An Orphan hero will
often wallow in their own misery waiting for salvation from without—a modern
yearning for a Deus ex machina ending. One of the most heroic acts the Orphan
undertakes is the initial decision to act at all. An essential aspect of the
Orphan is also a genuine acknowledgement of suffering and the need for help
from others. This is highly reminiscent of Campbell's popular statement that
“we have not even to risk the adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have
gone before us—the labyrinth is thoroughly known.” (Campbell 25)

As Pearson
illustrates, once the Orphan decides to act they will often enter into the
realm of the Wanderer. Equally often, a myth starts with a soon to be Wanderer
such as a maiden trapped in a tower.Here, the initial action is to leave. Salvation is to be found in a
journey. The shadow of the Wanderer, however, can often become a narcissistic
individual following their deluded bliss down many quick roads to happiness.
This false consciousness is often hard to overcome and is often followed by a
fall from grace establishing a backwards step to the Orphan. The Wanderer, when
activated in a positive aspect, is able to separate get happy quick schemes
from their true bliss. The knowledgeable Wanderer follows their bliss down
whatever road it may take them. Campbell was very clear that in many myths, the
symbolism of the hero's slaying the dragon is the annihilation of the ego. In a
very salient point, Pearson points out that no hero is truly able to slay their
ego if they never successfully develop one. This is the boon of the
Wanderer—finding oneself. Here, the hero of Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha
comes to mind. While Orphans will often go through a great part of their life
conforming to what society thinks they should be, they never find out who they
really are. No ego means no dragon to slay. And without a dragon—no hero
(Pearson 71).

It is often
difficult in modern society for individuals who have decided to develop their
Wanderer to act on that decision. This is true for both sexes. A stay at home
mom, having decided she would like to return to school to receive a degree in a
subject she has a passion for, may feel just as trapped as a man working a job
he hates just so he can support his family. In either situation, it would be
impossible to pursue the path of the Wanderer without support from others. In
Campbell's structure, it is often on the wandering road of adventure that the
hero meets their supernatural help.

The
monomythic structure now arrives at its climax—the Warrior hero meets the quest
objective. The slaying of the dragon is the quintessential heroic deed. The
annihilation of the ego allows the hero to accept that they are one with not
only nature, but with their community. Without the journey and finding oneself,
the hero would have never found a dragon to slay. As Pearson points out, the
original quest objective of the Warrior was mere survival. Staying alive at
whatever cost. This has gradually evolved into a more chivalric Warrior who
fights for a cause and has at least some moral code with regards to how they
use their power. The most proficient Warriors are highly competitive but
compete against themselves—they find honor in other Warriors even if they do
not agree philosophically. The Warrior archetype was the most prominent in the
myths explored by Campbell and continues to be by far the most popular in
contemporary myth and in society. The urban jungle is full of Warriors
competing mainly against each other in the dog eat dog corporate world. Women
who expect to compete in this environment are required to assume the trappings
of the Warrior and prove their worth in proverbial battle.

Another
possibility exists for the heroic climax—the hero gives themselves up for the
good of the community. In its first edition, The Hero Within labeled
this archetype the Martyr. But after Pearson perceived a negative social
connotation to this term, she changed it to the Altruist in subsequent
editions. The Altruist gives. This can be a Mother Theresa figure that gives up
possessions or a career in order to help the less fortunate, or it could be a
Christ figure that sacrifices themselves for the good of society. On the other
hand, the shadow of the Altruist is the codependent enabler that constantly
denies their own needs in order to take care of others. These gifts are not
given freely, but usually at a cost of either requiring recognition for giving
or as a reason to lay guilt on the receiver. The true Altruist gives and expects
nothing in return. As mentioned before in Campbell's analysis, the hero
acquires the boon and often wishes to stay in the other world. But the truly
heroic act is returning home to bestow the boon on the community. This is where
the Warrior transforms into the Altruist.

In some rare
instances both in myth and in history, individuals have been able to master the
aforementioned archetypes and become a Magician. Pearson describes the Magician
as a “namer”--they are able to see each individual for what they are and draw
that essence out of them naturally. When around a Magician, many people will
say they feel like they are themselves around them. The Magician has a lot in
common with the Weberian charismatic leader. The Magician is able to envision
an ideal and by sheer will make it happen.

Having
detailed the correlation of archetypes to the monomythic structure, there is
still something missing. The original goal of both Campbell and Pearson was to
provide a heroic journey applicable to all people regardless of demographic.
The use of unisex archetypes with gender neutral names certainly helps, but at
the end Pearson's analysis is basically identical to Campbell's with the
archetypes signaling different stages of the heroic journey. The problem, it
would seem, is not then with the analysis of heroic mythology, but with heroic
mythology itself. Commenting on the absence of female heroes in his book,
Joseph Campbell said he was looking for more heroines to include. The
overwhelming majority of heroes found in myths were male. Females appeared
mainly in fairy tales as prepubescents. As Campbell says “It was the men who
got involved in spinning most of the great myths. The women were too busy; they
had too damn much to do to sit around thinking about stories.” (Campbell 2004
p. 145) Even without a
quantifiable study, Campbell's words ring true.

Since 1949,
many new myths have appeared. Many more women writers have had a chance to get
published. More minority voices are heard in mythological settings. It is possible
nowadays to find an example of a hero from almost every demographic—if one
looks hard enough. If the point of myth, however, is to guide humans on their
life's journey, finding the appropriate myth should not be a journey in itself.
What a plural society needs is easy access to many different heroes. Our modern
mythology encompasses books, television, movies, and public figures among other
things and it would be here that easily accessible heroes would appear.

If
Campbell's statement on the authors of myth being, historically, predominantly
men, then a look at the best-seller list of the past several years provides
welcome relief to this trend. The recent success of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight
series features an ingénue who falls in love with a vampire. What develops is a
codependent relationship where the female is ready to give up her own humanity
in order to be with the young and powerful male vampire. A heroic role model
she is not. Meyer decidedly drops the ball when it comes to providing young women
with an appropriate hero figure. Another successful literary series, J.K.
Rowling's Harry Potter franchise features several important characters
with one very important trait in common—they are children (an often overlooked
minority). Rowling has stated that her goal in the series is to teach tolerance
for those different from the social norm. In this she succeeded. The female
character of Hermione is from a lower social status among fellow wizards given
her half-nonwizard heritage. In effect she is a biracial wizard dealing with
forces still seeking a pure-blooded world. Rowling also makes it clear that for
the title character, when faced with dangerous situations, the salvific “magic”
is often found inside him. Rowling does a much better job than Meyer of
providing more appropriate heroic models for her readers.

With so many
motion pictures being adaptations of books, it is hard to separate the two at
times. Given the less rigid time demands than television, movies have been able
to evolve more easily than television in searching for applicable modern
heroes. The Dark Knight from the Batman series offers the best example
yet of a hero for the 21st century. The obvious hero of this movie
is Batman, but the character of Gotham's District Attorney, Harvey Dent,
provides a much more dynamic hero. Dent seeks out the position of District
Attorney in order to bring down the organized crime crippling the city. He is
fully aware that, as he becomes more successful, his life will be more in
danger. He accepts this risk as necessary if he is to succeed in improving his
society. Here we have a Hollywood hero figure squarely placed in the land of
the Altruist--willing to give up his life for what is right (luckily the
“right” and “wrong” in The Dark Knight are easily identifiable). While
it is true that at the end of the movie, Dent turns against society, hopefully
we will continue to see heroes in the vein of the “good” Dent. Batman is
painted as a similar Altruist hero. In order for society to maintain the myth
of Harvey Dent as hero, Batman instructs the police commissioner to place the
blame for Dent's actions on Batman—thus forcing Batman into seclusion. In this
movie, we see double Christ figures giving their lives, one literally and the
other figuratively, for the betterment of society. While neither of the two
heroes are Warrior archetypes, they are both, however, male. Progress is a long
road indeed.

If the
literary world is at least partially attempting to break the male dominant
world, television is not nearly as successful. Television may inherently have a
more difficult time producing an evolving and more relevant hero due to its
time limit of 43 minutes for an hour long show, but there is still the sense
that television is no way near as creative in finding new heroes as literature
and motion pictures. Desperate Housewives title speaks for itself. There
are also dozens of crime shows involving either old fashioned police work or
high tech forensic shows—all with decidedly superficial characters falling into
their own bland archetypes. Some writers have been partly successful in
breaking the mold. House M.D. is an interesting example of a show
falling outside of the blasé television norm. While many of the fellow doctors
are female or from minorities (and bisexual to boot), the character of House is
a white male. The oppressive and repressive aspects of society are often
projected onto House's character. Playing the role of society, House is given
all the prejudices of society while the fellows show what society could be if
we embrace our plurality. Another interesting series is, not surprisingly, Heroes,
where run of the mill people are suddenly infused with superhuman powers. The
heroes of this show are certainly diverse and a deeper analysis of the series
may reveal many beneficial results.

While the
entertainment industry is often where society looks for its mythology, it is
always behind the curve. Entertainment does not usually change society, but the
opposite is often true. As a result, it is much easier to find contemporary
heroes for a plural world in public figures.The
campaign season and election day of 2008 provided a vivid example. The most obvious
hero of this political battle (Warrior archetype imagery intended) is Barack
Obama—the United States' first African-American President. It would be hard to
ascribe President Obama's popularity during the campaign season, however,
simply to his race. Mr. Obama symbolized a politician that society had not seen
for several years. Placing diplomacy over military power, Mr. Obama shows some
of the Magician qualities that were glaringly absent in previous presidencies.
Calling on Americans to improve their lot by their own hand, he can easily be
viewed as the catalyst for action that the Orphan so much needs or as the
supernatural aid that the hero encounters early on in their wandering journey
as described by Campbell. In Mr. Obama, society sees the hero that they can be.
Capable of overcoming congenital obstacles, each individual member of society
can be a hero. In filling this role of heroic inspiration, both Mr. Obama and
society need to remember, however, that it is ultimately the individual that
performs the heroic deed and not the magical friends encountered on the
journey.

It would be
easy to look back on Election 2008 and remember only Barack Obama. But the
campaign season was filled with other individuals from diverse backgrounds that
were capable of inspiring millions. Even in his defeat and at the hands of
ruthless late night comics, Senator John McCain proved that age is only a
number. At 72 years old, Mr. McCain showed that senior citizens (the fact that
the “politically correct” term for this demographic has not entered into a
society-wide discussion merely shows how much of an “invisible minority” they
are!) are fully capable of upholding one of the most stressful, both physically
and mentally, jobs in the world. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton achieved the
same result for women. Mrs. Clinton faced many questions concerning her gender
and desire for high office that were considered acceptable. Interestingly
enough, once these same questions were posed to Governor Sarah Palin, they were
viewed as sexist. This is most likely due to society's viewing Mrs. Clinton as
a Warrior and Mrs. Palin as an Altruist. Both women should be considered heroes
both for what they were able to accomplish and also for what they refused to
give up in the process. Lastly, the campaign of 2008 saw for the first time a
Presidential candidate from a non-mainline Christian denomination. Mitt Romney
showed that the United States, while not agreeing with all of his policies, was
ready for a Mormon president.

While the
demographic data for these presidential hopefuls places them, at least in part,
outside of the affluent, white male norm, are they archetypically different
from the dominant Warrior hero? For almost all of them, the answer appears to
be “no.” Each and every one played the politically barbaric game of campaign
warfare. The Warrior archetype was thoroughly engaged. Only possibly in the
case of Mr. Obama do we see signs of a different mold. And even then, those
signs were most obvious after he appeared to have the election firmly in grasp.

The original
question concerned Joseph Campbell's analysis of the monomyth and if it was
equally applicable to all people. Carol Pearson went on to re-analyze the
monomythic structure by applying six unisex archetypes to the hero. These
archetypes, more than being six separate heroes, were simply applied to
different stages of the heroic journey outlined by Campbell. Pearson,
essentially, shows that Campbell's analysis and structure are sound. Yet it is
still difficult to analyze myths using Campbell and Pearson's methods that are
applicable to females and minorities.

When
analyzing these myths, it is important to remember that there are two separate
stages to the process. One stage involves the analysis. The assumption that
Campbell was off the mark and that The Hero with a Thousand Faces was
inherently chauvinistic at worst and inapplicable to women and minorities at
best is wrong. The analysis is solid. Pearson runs into the same trap of having
a remarkable analysis that still falls short of the mark of being universal.
Her focus on self-improvement, however, is a welcomed departure from Campbell's
scholastic bent.

The second
stage in the process, however, is the mythology itself. Any analysis of myth,
no matter how brilliant it is, is still a slave to the myth. A chauvinistic
myth will result in a chauvinistic analysis. Campbell's work was not inherently
androcentric. The mythological pool he had to draw from was. Thirty-seven years
later, Pearson ran into the same problem. While progress had been made, the
80's saw the height of the Wall Street greed and corruption of the “Me
Generation.” Pearson was able to draw on some of the mythology that resulted
from the founts of the women's rights movement, the civil rights movement, and
the multi-cultural diversity that society had come to embrace. There is still,
however, a very long way to go.

Much like
the battle against racism, we must look back at how much ground has been
covered mythologically. Heroes are not always male anymore. They are not always
white. And they are not always Warriors. Progress has been made towards a
universal mythology. But as racism still has a good deal of ground left to
conquer, mythology is still a long way away from offering a realistic cross
section of the heroes of plural society. To accomplish this, as Campbell noted,
we must encourage women and minorities to create their own mythology and make
their own heroes. Not simply Warrior heroes with a different color, gender, or
sexual preference. But fundamentally different heroes that are applicable to
who the author wants to be. The world today is faced with serious problems
never before imagined. Society needs a corporate tycoon hero who recognizes the
effects his wealth has on the environment as well as his profit margin. A
politically successful hero that, instead of pandering to special interest
groups, truly believes all people are created equal and have the same rights. A
female hero who is able to be successful at work and at home without being a bulldog.
Ultimately, it is society's responsibility to create these myths. Without them,
mythology will become irrelevant and instead of being guided by heroic dreams,
individuals will become guided by self interest. The entertainment industry and
public figures can work towards accomplising this new creation by using one of
Pearson's self-improvement exercises: each day upon waking up, imagine the
ideal world you would like to live in and let the Magician in you do the rest
(Pearson 212).

Campbell, Joseph. 1949. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. MJF
Books.

Campbell, Joseph. 2004. Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and
Personal Transformation. New World Library

Pearson, Carol. 1998. The Hero Within: Six Archetypes We
Live By. HarperOne.